I'd recommend Anne Applebaum's Gulag: A History if you're interested in the phenomenon of camps on the other side of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line.

It was my understanding that buying Madagascar for a Jewish homeland was the first choice of the Zionists, and then when Britain said, "Hey, want to go to Palestine?" they jumped at the chance.

That's a really interesting point about the Nazis' disdain for the written word.